Against the Grain

I'm not impressed with FFXIII overall.

I'm three chapters in and I already don't feel like playing it anymore. Some of the issues with the game, I knew about before I bought it. Others, I semi-knew about, but was hoping it was different.

First, my biggest gripe.

The Datalog.

This alone is what makes this game feel like something other than a Final Fantasy game. It was my biggest gripe about FF12. Backstory and information about a game is useful to a degree, but the past two incarnations in the series have pretty much relied on this Datalog type feature to tell the story itself rather than telling it through the use of NPCs or cutscenes.

I don't want to read a novel when I'm playing a video game. I want the novel to be told in a manner that flows with the game play itself. I don't want to have to spend literally hours pouring over the datalog entries as they get added by the dozens. The character datalog and the chapter datalogs are fine. The rest of it is bullshit and still a central part into figuring out WTF is going on in this game. It doesn't take an IQ of 180+ to figure out the general premise, but little details should be told via conversation with NPCs, THEN added to the datalog. Little details shouldn't just be insta-added to the datalog as you get to certain points in the story with the expectation you're going to read them in order to understand what's going on.

My next biggest gripe.

Paradigm Shift.

Maybe this is an old school manner of thought here, but why is it so hard for SE to actually allow us to control all of our characters in an FF game? The past 2 console sequels have take a lot of the play out of the game itself and replaced with with stuff like Gambits and now this Paradigm shift. That was always one of the biggest draws to me for an FF game. Mix and matching parties and abilities and actually CHOOSING WHEN TO EXECUTE THE STUFF MYSELF.

Now we get...

DIVERSIFY!
SOLIDARITY!
RELENTLESS ASSAULT!

And so on...

Don't get me wrong, I don't really mind the system that's in place for XIII, I just think it takes away from the overall feel of what a Final Fantasy game is supposed to be.

And for the record, yes I know you could technically control the other characters in 12, it just wasn't all that fluid and still relied heavily on the AI you set up.

Next gripe: Linear game play.

FFX was pretty bad about this. XIII is worse. Aside from a few nooks and crannies in the various zones early on, there's no exploration whatsoever to this game. You run through (or back) and into the next chapter. Pretty much every single FF game (other than X) let you roam around on a world map after the initial set of character introductions and plot progression. This is a big no no in the Final Fantasy world. If the zones were huge and had some feel of the unknown to them, that'd be better, but as it is right now (in relation to where I'm at in the game), the zones are pretty much a straight line, with a few battles, treasure orbs, and jump points mixed in here and there.

Next to last gripe: Crystarium

Really? How is this really any different from the license system that was supposed to make characters unique in 12? Aside from what appears to be different classes you can gain abilities for, it still looks like it's headed in the same direction the license boards did. You play the game long enough, all of them end up with the same abilities.

Final gripe: Non-stop cutscenes.

My game clock is sitting around 4 hours at the moment.

I've probably controlled my characters about half of that.

Little overboard on the cutscenes.

Conclusion:

So far, I'm not impressed at all with 13. It'll probably get better, but it's been a long while since I lost interest in an FF game this quickly. The game's got some beautiful graphics and cutscenes, as are the norm for most of the stuff SE produces under it's flagship title, but after a while, people begin to see through the shiny and see the game for what it really is...

...at least so far.